Sometimes minimalism is art, but here less is less.
As the title implies, Kuiper’s first novel is composed entirely of notes a mother and daughter leave for each other on the refrigerator door.
Mom is a busy obstetrician recently separated from her husband. Claire is her 15-year-old daughter. Despite a few random complaints, mostly about needing money to buy the lists of items Mom requests, Claire comes across from the beginning as too good to be true—independent yet loving and responsible. Mom comes across as very absentee and whiny. Her lack of a cell phone, a complaint of Claire’s, is a little odd, especially given her frequent notes about being called to an emergency delivery. Then notes back and forth about doctor appointments and mammograms start to appear. Around the same time, Mom starts leaving messages about a boy named Michael having called for Claire. A note refers to the lump Mom has in her breast. Soon she and Claire are arranging by note for Claire to accompany Mom to the lumpectomy. Claire grocery shops and cooks for Mom. Mom continues to work. Claire worries about Mom but is also dating Michael, whom Mom never gets around to meeting. Claire and Mom bicker over Michael and Claire briefly goes to stay with Dad. Mom admits she has cancer. Michael and Claire break up, get back together, break up again. Claire realizes how serious Mom’s condition is. Claire and Dad get Mom a wig for her chemo but Mom freaks out. Mom leaves petulant notes and then apologizes. Claire gets a little angry and then apologizes. Basically, the novel progresses from nice-normal to nice-sad to nice-supersad as Mom’s health deteriorates. Eventually, Claire is leaving notes to say she is in the backyard, and Mom’s notes say she’s resting. Claire leaves two last notes after Mom has died to say how much she loved Mom and to tell her about her new boyfriend James. All of which makes for an easy read for those looking for sad-lite.
Sometimes minimalism is art, but here less is less.Pub Date: Sept. 1, 2007
ISBN: 978-0-06-137049-6
Page Count: 240
Publisher: HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 15, 2007
A first novel, this is also a first person account of Scout's (Jean Louise) recall of the years that led to the ending of a mystery, the breaking of her brother Jem's elbow, the death of her father's enemy — and the close of childhood years. A widower, Atticus raises his children with legal dispassion and paternal intelligence, and is ably abetted by Calpurnia, the colored cook, while the Alabama town of Maycomb, in the 1930's, remains aloof to their divergence from its tribal patterns. Scout and Jem, with their summer-time companion, Dill, find their paths free from interference — but not from dangers; their curiosity about the imprisoned Boo, whose miserable past is incorporated in their play, results in a tentative friendliness; their fears of Atticus' lack of distinction is dissipated when he shoots a mad dog; his defense of a Negro accused of raping a white girl, Mayella Ewell, is followed with avid interest and turns the rabble whites against him. Scout is the means of averting an attack on Atticus but when he loses the case it is Boo who saves Jem and Scout by killing Mayella's father when he attempts to murder them. The shadows of a beginning for black-white understanding, the persistent fight that Scout carries on against school, Jem's emergence into adulthood, Calpurnia's quiet power, and all the incidents touching on the children's "growing outward" have an attractive starchiness that keeps this southern picture pert and provocative. There is much advance interest in this book; it has been selected by the Literary Guild and Reader's Digest; it should win many friends.
Pub Date: July 11, 1960
ISBN: 0060935464
Page Count: 323
Publisher: Lippincott
Review Posted Online: Oct. 7, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 1, 1960
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
SEEN & HEARD
SEEN & HEARD
SEEN & HEARD
The best-selling author of tearjerkers like Angel Falls (2000) serves up yet another mountain of mush, topped off with...
Talk-show queen takes tumble as millions jeer.
Nora Bridges is a wildly popular radio spokesperson for family-first virtues, but her loyal listeners don't know that she walked out on her husband and teenaged daughters years ago and didn't look back. Now that a former lover has sold racy pix of naked Nora and horny himself to a national tabloid, her estranged daughter Ruby, an unsuccessful stand-up comic in Los Angeles, has been approached to pen a tell-all. Greedy for the fat fee she's been promised, Ruby agrees and heads for the San Juan Islands, eager to get reacquainted with the mom she plans to betray. Once in the family homestead, nasty Ruby alternately sulks and glares at her mother, who is temporarily wheelchair-bound as a result of a post-scandal car crash. Uncaring, Ruby begins writing her side of the story when she's not strolling on the beach with former sweetheart Dean Sloan, the son of wealthy socialites who basically ignored him and his gay brother Eric. Eric, now dying of cancer and also in a wheelchair, has returned to the island. This dismal threesome catch up on old times, recalling their childhood idylls on the island. After Ruby's perfect big sister Caroline shows up, there's another round of heartfelt talk. Nora gradually reveals the truth about her unloving husband and her late father's alcoholism, which led her to seek the approval of others at the cost of her own peace of mind. And so on. Ruby is aghast to discover that she doesn't know everything after all, but Dean offers her subdued comfort. Happy endings await almost everyone—except for readers of this nobly preachy snifflefest.
The best-selling author of tearjerkers like Angel Falls (2000) serves up yet another mountain of mush, topped off with syrupy platitudes about life and love.Pub Date: March 1, 2001
ISBN: 0-609-60737-5
Page Count: 336
Publisher: Crown
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 15, 2001
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